Blogging the Buckeyes

Get Email Updates

Ohio State Headlines

Our Ohio State headlines email newsletter delivers Buckeyes athletics news from
The Dispatch. Sent weekday mornings and Saturday game days during football season. You'll
also be alerted when breaking news happens involving the Buckeyes.

Gary Woodland (74) and Leishman, playing in the final group, had a chance to force
a playoff over the last two holes, but Woodland’s title bid ended with a double-bogey on 17 and
Leishman’s when he could not eagle 18.

•
Jessica Korda won the season-opening Bahamas LPGA Classic for her second tour
title, holing a 6-foot birdie putt on the final hole to beat
Stacy Lewis by a stroke.

Korda closed with a 7-under 66 for a 19-under 273 total on Atlantis Resort’s Ocean Club course
on Paradise Island. Lewis parred the final four holes for a 66.

Auto racing

Corvette sweeps podium at Rolex 24 at Daytona

Action Express Racing led a Corvette podium sweep in the prestigious Rolex 24 at
Daytona, where
Joao Barbosa held off
Max Angelelli on a restart with 8 minutes, 23 seconds remaining to preserve a
second overall victory in four years at Daytona International Speedway.

Bobby Rahal’s Hilliard-based BMW Z4 team was positioned to challenge for the
victory in the GT-LM class headed into the last two laps. But driver
Joey Hand, within two seconds of the class-leading Porsche 911, was blocked by a
car from a lower class just as he was making his move heading onto the banking of the speedway.
Hand had to settle for second, 2.838 seconds behind.

The Rahal Letterman Lanigan team’s other BMW Z4 ended up fourth in class. With
Graham Rahal one of the four drivers, it was running third with about four hours
left before the right rear wheel bearing failed, causing an extended stop to repair.

Mike Shank’s Pataskala-based team, which won the overall race in 2012, led a
couple of times in the prototype division. But an extended stop early in the morning to replace the
gearbox put the team 11 laps off the pace. It finished 12th in class, 47th overall.

Baseball

Brewers sign Garza to four-year contract

Free-agent pitcher
Matt Garza signed a four-year contract with the Milwaukee Brewers.

A person familiar with the negotiations, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the
contract, said the four-year deal was worth $50 million with an extra $1 million per year in
reachable performance bonuses for a starter.

Garza, a 30-year-old right-hander, went 10-6 with a 3.82 ERA last season for the Chicago Cubs
and Texas Rangers.

Football

Dolphins hire Buccaneers official as general manager

Tampa Bay Buccaneers executive
Dennis Hickey has been hired as general manager of the Miami Dolphins, ending a
search that lasted nearly three weeks.

Hickey had been with the Buccaneers for 18 seasons, including the past three as director of
player personnel.

• Former Florida State quarterback
Jake Coker is transferring to Alabama.

Alabama coach
Nick Saban announced yesterday that Coker has signed with the Crimson Tide.

Coker is on target to graduate in May and would be eligible to play for the Tide in 2014.

Basketball

Hall of Famer Gola dies; led La Salle to NCAA title

Tom Gola, the Hall of Fame basketball player who led La Salle to the 1954 NCAA
title and helped the Philadelphia Warriors win the 1956 NBA championship, died yesterday. He was
81.

Gola holds the NCAA career rebounds record with 2,201 and scored 2,461 points.

He played 11 NBA seasons with Philadelphia/San Francisco and New York. Gola later coached at La
Salle, where the arena is named after him.